The Palestinian Authority has called for Australia to play a significant role in an international stabilisation force in Gaza, including sending peacekeeping troops to help establish law and order in the ravaged enclave.
The Palestinian Authority’s deputy foreign minister, Omar Awadallah, said it was vital for the international community to move quickly to establish a United Nations-endorsed peacekeeping force to ensure the fragile ceasefire did not collapse and that Israeli troops withdraw from almost all of the Gaza Strip.
Omar Awadallah, the Palestinian Authority’s deputy foreign minister, has urged Australia to participate in an international stabilisation force for Gaza.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
US President Donald Trump would deserve a Nobel Peace Prize if he was able to secure a long-term peace in Gaza after two years of ferocious Israeli bombardments, he added.
“I think Australia can help in so many aspects, including by sending forces, by sending experts, by supporting the training of Palestinian security personnel,” Awadallah told this masthead from the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah.
“We believe that we need to see principled countries like Australia [involved in a stabilisation force] because we don’t want any kind of a trusteeship or new kind of occupation for the Palestinian territory.”
An Australian presence would help convince Palestinians that the stabilisation force is “really coming to stabilise the situation, not to have another kind of occupation” in Gaza, he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would consider ways Australia could contribute to an international stabilisation force in Gaza.
The government said last week it would send an Australian Defence Force liaison officer to the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre in Israel to help contribute to efforts to stabilise the region.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was contacted for comment.
The Palestinian Authority – which represents Palestine in international forums such as the UN and governs parts of the West Bank – is dominated by the secular-nationalist Fatah party.
Fatah is a more moderate rival to the listed terror group Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and launched the shock October 7 attacks on Israel that killed an estimated 1200 people.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Anthony Albanese.Credit: AP
Speaking during a visit to Israel at the weekend, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “a lot of countries” had offered to be part of an international security force for Gaza and that it would come into effect “as soon as it possibly can”.
The United Nations has previously deployed peacekeepers to try to maintain ceasefires between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Syria, but not in the West Bank or Gaza since 1967, the year Israel took control of the territories.
Asked about post-war governance in Gaza, Awadallah said: “There is no role for Hamas. They accepted Trump’s plan, and that makes clear they have nothing to do with governance and security in Gaza.”
He said the Palestinian Authority had committed to hold elections next year in what would be the first such poll in more than two decades.
“We want your support, we want your help,” Awadallah said, requesting Australian assistance for the electoral process.
However, he added that it was crucial for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem to be able to participate in the democratic process for the elections to be legitimate.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its undivided capital, complicating efforts to hold Palestinian elections in the holy city.
The Albanese government has said that it will take practical steps to reflect its recognition of Palestinian statehood – such as the opening of an embassy in Ramallah – when the Palestinian Authority meets key milestones, such as the holding of elections.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has also said that Australia plans to work with Indonesia on education reform in Palestine.
Awadallah said Palestinian authorities were committed to developing a “new, modern education system … but that does not mean that we need to change our narrative, our story about the historic facts”.
Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum of glorifying terrorism and encouraging the hatred of Israel. The European Parliament passed a resolution earlier this year accusing Palestinian Authority textbooks of promoting antisemitism and inciting violence.
“The incitement that we are facing here in Palestine is the Israeli occupation itself,” Awadallah said.
He said Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations last month was received with “great importance” in Palestine, and that it “touched not only the minds but the hearts of the Palestinian people”.
He urged Australians to continue protesting for Palestinian self-determination and demanding government action even if the ceasefire in Gaza held.
“The war on Gaza may now be silent in a way or another, but the war on the Palestinian people did not finish yet,” he said.
“The aggression on the Palestinian people did not finish yet. The occupation of the Palestinian territory did not end yet. We need to keep pushing until the end of the Israeli occupation.”
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